Book Patrol is a place where you can share in Michael Lieberman's passion for the printed word, the history of the book as an object and as a cultural artifact.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..

Unfortunately family life prevented me from crawling all night but from what I did catch it is safe to say that, at least here in Seattle, the printed word has lost none of its luster.

The energy was fantastic, the turnout out was impressive and the reading I went to was quite memorable.

Cooper Canyon Press hosted Poets with Candy featuring Matthew Dickman and Ed Skoog. “Come for treats, not tricks, as poetry press Copper Canyon presents local treasures Matthew Dickman (50 American Plays) and Ed Skoog (Rough Day) while doling out candy,” was how they plugged it. Dickman is one of those rare poets that you want to go see whenever you hear he is reading, in many ways he is the embodiment of the contemporary American poet. I was also to eager to hear Ed Skoog, whom I had heard good things about but was unfamiliar with.

About 75 people were in the house when Copper Canyon associate editor Elaina Ellis got things rolling by introducing each poet by reading their Wikipedia entries!

Then the poets had two alternating 10 minute spots.

Ed Skoog read first. After distributing candy by both handing it out and throwing it up in the air he settled down to read his first poem.

It was called “Sugar” – Nothing else really needed to happen, I was completely entertained.

Matthew Dickman followed. He read from 50 American Plays, a book of poems that he wrote with his brother Michael and was published last year by Copper Canyon Press.

Feeding off Elaina Ellis’ introduction Dickman began, after handing out some candy, his reading by pulling out his cellphone and reading his work from his device.

It wasn’t too long before Dickman received a text message that interrupted the reading. It was from Michael Wiegers, the editor of Copper Canyon Press, who was in attendance. Wiegers was asking Matthew to put his cellphone away! Hysterical.

Then it was off to the afterparty at the Richard Hugo House. After spending some time getting lost in the stacks at ZAPP (Zine Archive and Publishing Project), an unparalleled zine library on the second floor, I paid a visit to Matthew Rowe who set up his poem shop and was working hard providing poetry to the masses.

“You name the topic, and I’ll type the poem. Then, you donate as you see fit.” is how he rolls.

I gave him $20 and asked him to write a poem about “the book” and this is what happened.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..